Saturday, January 28, 2017

That feeling when ya
student loan drops and you spend it on things that will DEFINITELY help you get
your degree. For example, a good old MAC haul. January’s student loan payment
is soooo great because you’re all broke from Christmas, and then suddenly you’ve
got over a grand just sitting around in your bank account. SUUUURE, we could
spend it on rent. But do we? No. It’s ware more fun to splurge on unnecessary
stuff, then stress and cry lots later on in the month.

I made quite a decent
dent in my cash with this very exciting MAC haul. I usually always get a
lipstick from MAC, but since my liquid lipstick addiction has taken hold of me,
I’ve been able to focus on researching their other products. I’ve never had any
eye-related makeup from MAC, so I was really excited to add the MAC Eyeshadow Amber X 9 Palette to my
basket. It’s recently had its price reduced from £30 to £25, and when you
consider the cost of individual MAC shadows, it seemed like a bargain. It’s a
little bit dinkier than I expected, but to be honest, I’ve still not ever used
up an entire eyeshadow palette, so I’m not fretting too much.

I also picked up the MAC Fluidline in Blacktrack because I
love making a dick of myself. I’m notoriously shite at liquid eyeliner, so I’ve
not got a clue why I thought that upgrading to a gel liner would be a good
idea. I’m used to pen-liners, but I thought that maybe a gel would be easier to
control? I’m probably entirely wrong. I’m probably going to stab myself in the
eyeballs with my pointy brush and end up looking like a panda. An attractive
panda, but a panda nonetheless.

And probably the most
exciting purchase from this haul was the MAC
Strobe Cream which, again, I have precisely zero ideas on how to use it.
Some of my favourite YouTubers and Bloggers seem to swear by this product, so
I’ve invested and I’ll give it a good go. I’m already in love with the pearly
white bottle, which is so different to MAC’s signature all-black-errythang.
This one set me back £24.50, and the bottle is actually much larger than I
expected it to be. I’m really excited to try this out, and I can’t wait to look
like a glitzy shimmering unicorn.

Have any of you guys got any of these products? What
can I expect from them? Let me know!

Wednesday, January 25, 2017

It’s the skincare I never
knew I needed. Has anyone else ever done this? I received this GlamGlow Supercleanse Mud To Foam Daily
Treatment Cleanser for Christmas, and I’d honestly never even heard of it.
I have tried some GlamGlow products in the past; I had a sample of their
Youthmud Mask and I also tried their Eye Mask at a friend’s once. I always
wanted to save up to buy the full-size Youthmud Mask, but given it was probably
cheaper to buy a house, I decided not to. So, when I unwrapped this on Christmas
Day, I was suuuuper excited because it’s the first full-size GlamGlow product
I’d ever tried, and it looked like the real deal.

Starting off with the
packaging: YES YES YAAAS YAAAAASSS. White and silver are so minimalistic and
perfect and beautiful and photogenic. This bottle looks great in my silver
basket in my bathroom, and if that’s not reason enough to love this product,
then I don’t know what is. It has a pump mechanism to get the product out, and
it tells you to use 2-3 pumps and it comes out easily and smoothly. The bottle
itself is huuuge. Well, it’s 150ml of actual product, but the bottle looks at
feels more like a 250ml product. Oh well.

I completely and utterly
fell in love with this cleanser when I tried it. It’s a really unusual type of
cleanser. You pump the mud out onto your fingers, apply it to a dry face, wait
five minutes and then lather it with warm water. It’s actually quite fun, and a
nice little twist on your usual face washing routine. It feels quite minty.
There might even be a bit of tea-tree in there, because it makes your skin
tingle very lightly, and it smells lovely.

GlamGlow claims this
product is perfect for all skin types, and will reduce blemishes and combat
oiliness. Sounds great, but does it work? Well, my skin has looked so much
brighter since I began using this on a daily basis after Christmas. It feels
fresh, matte and cleaner than ever. Although it claims that it can be used to
remove makeup, I still prefer to remove my makeup as thoroughly as I can with
Micellar Water, and then go in with this for good measure. I can definitely say
that my skin is immediately more radiant and luminous after using this cleanser.
I feel as though this wash is better suited to morning cleansing than evening
cleansing, as it makes your skin look so fresh and illuminated for the day.

I’m not 100% sure where
you can get this product in the UK, as my Mumma sent me this from the land of
Oz. Maybe we can commission her as a smuggling mule? I’d definitely recommend
this to absolutely anyone; there’s no soreness, dryness or irritating smell. I’ve
got sensitive skin, and it has worked wonders for me so far. It’s my new
favourite cleanser, 5-EVA.

Have you ever tried any of GlamGlow’s products? What
have you liked/disliked about them?

Saturday, January 21, 2017

Good old Mummy McRae hit
it out of the park at Christmas with these beeeautiful Stila Stay All Day
Liquid Lipsticks. I’m massively into liquid lipsticks now, so much so that I’ve
been neglecting my MAC lipsticks in favour of my ever-growing liquid lipstick
collection. I was lucky enough to unwrap not one, but TWO Stila gift sets on
Jesus’s birthday. The first was the Backstage
Beauty Icons Gift set from Mecca Cosmetica, which includes a mascara, an
eyeliner, a cheek and lip tint and one liquid lipstick. The second was the Bright & Bold Stay All Day Liquid
Lipstick Set, containing three liquid lipsticks, also from Mecca Cosmetica.
Please come to the UK Mecca!

The liquid lipsticks I
received were Dolce (from the Backstage set) and Beso, Viola and Lume (from the
Bright & Bold set). They all smell great; a lil bit vanilla-y and not all
gluey like some liquid lipsticks I have. The tubes are really quite petite, and
I’m not totally sure whether that’s just the size Stila does their liquid
lipsticks in, or whether I’ve got travel-size mini ones because they were part
of a gift set. Who knows? We will live in mystery!

Beso is the truest, brightest, most vibrant red I’ve ever seen in my life. It’s
almost neon in person, so I was reeeally happy to see this shade. I am
definitely partial to a bright red, but I’ve only got a couple that I really
like. I think this one is quite a showstopper, so I look forward to trying it
out and seeing how it looks. I’ve got a feeling that because it’s so true and
vivid, it’ll compliment my pale winter skin and look BOMB, but we shall have to
wait for an occasion that calls for such a red, and see.

Viola is described as a ‘cool lavender’ by Stila, but as you can probably see by
the pictures, it’s still very loud and bright. I have been getting well into my
purple toned lipsticks, and this one will make a nice addition to my muted,
neutral collection of purples. I’m almost scared of this shade! I know from
experience that purple lipsticks make your teeth look yellow, so I’m going to have
to crack out the Listerine and Colgate before wearing this one out. I do love
the colour, though. It’s definitely quite summery, and again, a total
showstopper!

Lume is hard to give an accurate description of, as I genuinely could not for
the life of me open the tube. I was flailing around the kitchen with teatowels,
rubber gloves and talcum powder trying to wrench it open, to no avail. When
Chris got home, he couldn’t open it either, so for now, I’m going to have to
look at it longingly through the glass and imagine what could have been. It’s a
‘deep fuchsia’, according to Stila. It’s also one of their limited edition
shades, so that would be exciting IF I COULD OPEN IT. I love the look of the
colour, though. It’s not something I’d choose myself at first, but I can see
myself wearing it for evenings out, dinners or parties. IF I COULD GET THE TUBE
OPEN THAT WOULD BE GR8.

Dolce was immediately my favourite when I saw it, but then again, I am a
creature of habit. And I have a serious nude habit. It’s a beautiful, clean,
peachy nude that looks like it’s going to get a lot of wear out of me. I can’t
seem to find many lip swatches on Google that look accurate, so this will be
one that I’m going into blindly. It’s the classic everyday nude. It’s
absolutely stunning and I can’t wait to wear it!

Have you tried any of the Stila Stay All Day Liquid
Lipsticks? Let me know what your thoughts were!

Monday, January 16, 2017

I felt like the bloody
luckiest girl on the planet on Christmas Day. Champagne in hand, a stomach full
of Lindor chocolate that I’d devoured for breakfast, and safe in the knowledge
I’d be playing charades until 3am, I was in utter bliss. Imagine my shock, joy
and hysteria to open all my amazing Christmas prezzies from my generous family.

All the gifts I received
were amazing (some were hilarious; Dad got me a Donald Trump supporter’s
T-Shirt), but one of my favourites was opening all these Real Techniques Bold
Metals brushes! I’ve been hardcore in love with Real Techniques since I first
started getting into makeup. I’ve always absolutely sworn by them, and they’re
my fail-proof tools for getting makeup from point A: the bottle, to point B: my
face. I didn’t even twig on that the identically shaped presents were indeed
makeup brushes. Could have been the champagne, but who knows?

I received the 100 Arched Powder brush, a super soft
and thick brush. I also got the 101
Triangle Foundation which looks a bit weird if you ask me. I’m not sure on
how it’s gonna work, but I’ll have to have a little experiment and see. Then
there’s the 300 Tapered Blush which
is rose-gold and sooo pretty. Then there’s the 301 Flat Contour which I can never ever get enough of. Flat contour
brushes are the only way I can get a good contour going on, so I’m in love.
This one is rosey-gold too, so it’s super pretty. Next up are the eye brushes;
the 200 Oval Shadow, 202 Angled Liner, and the 203 Tapered Shadow, all of which are
soft and densely bristled. I love the silver finish on these ones too.

They’re all so pretty I’m
dreading using them all for the first time. It always takes me a good few weeks
of just staring at new brushes before I can muster up the courage to get them
dirty. It took me 3 months to use my ZOEVA Rose Gold Brush Set! I’m not exactly
sure how much all these brushes cost, I feel a bit ill even thinking about the
price, to be honest, but they were a gift and I don’t feel the need to go
snooping. I know you can get them from Boots! Just look for the bright,
gleaming, shiny brushes that look like they’ve fallen out of heaven and hand
that debit card over. Thank me later.